


Downbeat

by Caeslin



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Earth C (Homestuck), Gen, Incest Smarm, Intimacy, M/M, Sibling Bonding, definitely normal amounts of touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22449622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caeslin/pseuds/Caeslin
Summary: On Earth C, Dirk and Dave have started hanging out a lot together. It's pretty cool, and Dirk's not overthinking it. For the most part.
Relationships: Dave Strider & Dirk Strider, Dave Strider/Dirk Strider
Comments: 6
Kudos: 82
Collections: Party Like It's Post 999!





	Downbeat

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/344797.html?thread=2002264797#cmt2002264797), for the prompt "Incest smarm - Dave's hugs just last longer and longer."

Dirk's thought a lot over the years about what it might be like to have a bro he could actually hang out with. His go-to scenarios involved a lot of sword battles, rap battles, coding battles -- basically a fundamentally combat-based relationship, but with a supportive, pedagogical ethos underpinning it, in the spirit of the great samurai masters, or The Karate Kid.

It took all of two minutes in Dave's company to realize none of that was going to work out. Dirk would think Paradox Space was giving preteen him and his cinematically-derived fantasies the bird, except that it turns out that his same-aged, parallel-universe, non-hypothetical brother is actually really awesome. More awesome than he sometimes thinks he deserves.

On paper they're both rulers of kingdoms -- which is bizarre, frankly -- but the consorts mostly manage themselves and the troll kingdom has some labyrinthine bureaucratic system Terezi's content to delegate the hell out of, so in practice they both have a lot of free time. They've taken to messaging each other a lot lately, and between that and Dirk's increasingly pressing desire to avoid his own co-ruler, it seems easiest most days to just pop over to Dave's place and hang out there.

Ironically, given how long and rambling their chat logs can get, in person they don't talk much at all. Some of that's nerves, but it also just feels performative, saying "hey, check this out" when Dirk can just nudge Dave to get his attention, or split earbuds with him so that they can both listen to whatever song he's currently feeling. Sometimes he'll be absorbed in a project and Dave will come up from behind and wordlessly rest his neck on his shoulder, to see what he's working on. Or they'll both be sitting on the couch and Dirk will ruffle Dave's hair just to mess with him, and that will transition into him running his fingers through it, sort of massaging his scalp idly, for ten or twenty minutes at a stretch.

It's all kind of tender. Intimate. Pretty fucking gay, if you wanted to put a terminologically obsolete bludgeon to it.

Dirk figures the fault lies in that first encounter. That was sort of the primal template for all future interactions, the scaffolding on which the rest was built. If they hadn't hugged it out that first time they could have gone on not hugging, but now it's too late: the precedent's set, the limits defined, and even if Dirk wanted to go in now and remove that particular feature from the UI of their relationship the asset would still be there floating around conspicuously in the background, an artefact of the fact that they had once hugged.

It's also possible that they've straight-up become moirails. The astute might correctly point out that neither of them are trolls, but to that Dirk could easily counter that he grew up in a timeline ruled by them, and Dave is dating one, ergo it makes perfect sense for them to have internalized the concept over the course of the past few sweeps, the same way Karkat is slowly and weirdly picking up Dave's Texan accent. Hair-petting alone shows up so often in Karkat's goofy bodice rippers that it's got to be not even troll vanilla but, like, whatever proto-flavor there is before you even add the vanilla flavoring. It's so standard that you would probably be a really shitty moirail if you _didn't_ do it, like the platonic bro version of blue-balling someone.

Because platonic is definitely a thing that their relationship is. 

How fucked would he be, if it wasn't?

Anyway.

Long story short, Dirk figures he's best off embracing his new touchy-feely destiny without examining it too closely. Thinking about his relationships has typically only ever resulted in him destroying them, but instinct has never once steered him wrong.

Today he and Dave are collaborating on a mashup, with Dave at the turntables and Dirk on his keyboard. Now that the beat's set they've gotten into a real groove, Dave taking Dirk's phrases and running with them in directions he couldn't even have predicted, Dirk riffing on those beats in turn. He's high on rhythm, caught up in the flow, and when he gets an idea he doesn't even hesitate before crossing over and settling his hands on top of Dave's on the record.

Dave freezes just long enough for Dirk's stomach to turn to lead. But then he nods, fingers relaxing under Dirk's own, letting Dirk control the table and show him what he's thinking. He even shifts back a little so that he's standing against Dirk's shoulder, sort of almost nestled in Dirk's arms, such that Dirk's brushing against him with every minute adjustment he makes.

It feels more natural than you'd think. Dave smells good, familiar, and it's comforting to have a warm body against his that Dirk doesn't have to worry about accidentally freaking out or scaring away. It's just nice, having a brother he can touch. It doesn't have to mean anything.

Once Dave's got the idea, though, Dirk makes himself step back. Can't very well leave the keyboard unmanned. They tease out the rest of the song back in their own spots, and it's good like it always is, but even boxed in by his gear Dirk's fingers won't stop tingling inside his fingerless gloves, the phantom beat of Dave's pulse echoing under his skin.


End file.
